The Clone Paradox (The Ark Project, Book I)

by J. W. Elliot

  “Just tell me what you got me up for,” Kaiden said. He was in no mood for games.

  “Quill left you a message.”

  Kaiden blinked at her, trying to decide if he had heard her correctly. How could Quill leave him a message?

  “Look.” Willow pointed to the screen, and Kaiden read the bold, blue lines.

  “Hey, Kaiden. I think they’re onto me. Watch your back. I wouldn’t trust anybody on the team. Rio’s behind it somehow. I found some top secret shipments going out that I think are tied to that Flood file. If you can track them, you might be able to figure this thing out. That encryption code is some ancient language. I slept through most of history class, but I’ve seen it somewhere before. Anyway, if you’re reading this, I guess I’m gone. Thanks for everything, Dude. Good luck.”

  Kaiden blinked at the sudden sting in his eyes and the warmth in his chest. Quill had known he would be targeted. He had expected to die. Why hadn’t Quill said something?

  “How come you got this and I didn’t?” Kaiden said.

  “I found it in the trash files,” she said. “Somebody in communications must have seen it and tried to delete it.”

  Kaiden bowed his head so Willow wouldn’t see his unshed tears.

  She placed a cool hand on his. “I’m sorry,” she said. Kaiden let her hand linger. It was comforting as he wrestled with his emotions, too overwhelmed to speak.

  “Well?” Willow soothed. “Do you know what he’s talking about?”

  Kaiden swallowed. “Quill broke into the central security system and found a folder called The Flood. He thinks…thought…it was a play on the old story about Noah.”

  “Obviously.” Willow withdrew her hand. “The Ark?” She raised her eyebrows.

  “I get that,” Kaiden said. “It’s The Flood that Quill was worried about. The file was encrypted with some ancient language, and Quill thought The Flood is supposed to do what it did in the days of Noah.”

  “Like destroy humankind?” Willow prompted.

  “That’s the idea.”

  “And it didn’t occur to you to tell me this before?”

  Kaiden bristled. “No more than it occurred to you to tell me you were running tests on all of us before they kill us.”

  Willow grimaced at him. “Okay, genius. What’s your next move?”

  Kaiden dropped into a chair. “I don’t have a next move.” He paused as the idea came to him. “But I want to know what happened to Quill’s body. Has it been composted yet? I wish we should ha funerals with…” He paused, trying to remember the word.

  “Caskets?” Willow said.

  Kaiden nodded as he remembered the red rose and the little girl in the casket. He realized that he had a memory of a funeral, though he didn’t understand it. It had been painful, but it had also been necessary, somehow. Something about being able to place the rose on the lid and say goodbye filled him with a strange longing that hurt and made him feel better at the same time. He wanted to be able to have that feeling about Quill—not this empty sadness.

  Willow’s expression softened. “We’re just lab rats, Kaiden. When are you going to understand that?”

  “So, where’s his body?”

  “I don’t know,” Willow said.

  “Find out.”

  Willow clicked her tongue. “You could say, please.”

  “Please,” Kaiden said. How could he explain why this was important to him when he didn’t understand it himself?

  Willow gave him an exasperated glare. “This is going to take a while.”

  “I can’t sleep now anyway,” Kaiden said. “Not since you dragged me out of bed.”

  “Deal with it,” Willow said, but she turned to the computer.

  Half an hour later, Willow kicked Kaiden’s foot. His head rested on his arms, and he was drooling on the table.

  “I found it,” she said.

  When Kaiden lifted his head to blink at her, the drool dribbled off his chin.

  “That’s attractive.” Willow grimaced.

  Kaiden swiped at it with the back of his hand.

  “Where is he?” Kaiden said.

  “It’s his number.”

  Maybe Kaiden was just sleepy, but Willow’s answer didn’t make any sense. “Number? Like our ID number?” Kaiden glanced at the black tattoo on his right arm.

  “Kind of. It’s your clone number. That’s how TAP keeps track of us.”

  “What’s this?” Kaiden pointed to a symbol next to Quill’s number that was composed of several little triangles with thin lines coming off one end.

  “I think…wait a minute,” Willow said. She spun in the chair to stare at Kaiden. “Turn around.”

  “Uh, why?”

  “Just do it.”

  Kaiden rolled his eyes and spun his back to her. Willow was demanding and headstrong. Kaiden couldn’t figure her out, so he humored her.

  She grabbed the back of his collar and pulled it down.

  “What the...?” Kaiden jumped as her icy fingers touched his back. “Your hands are cold.”

  “Hold still,” she said. Her cool fingers brushed his skin. He shivered, but not from the cold this time. “I thought so,” Willow said.

  “Care to share?” Kaiden asked.

  “You have a similar mark on your spine right above the shoulder blades.”

  “Oh, that,” Kaiden said. He shrugged the shirt back up and faced Willow. “All the security personnel have one.” Kaiden had seen it often enough in the showers while he was in cadet school.

  “I think all the clones have one,” Willow corrected him.

  “Really?” Kaiden snickered. “You want me to check to see if you have one?”

  Willow smirked at him. “I don’t think so. I’ve already seen it in the mirror.”

  “Just an idea,” Kaiden said. “Any time you want to know what it looks like, all you have to do is ask.” In the dimmed light of the lab, her face had a soft glow to it. He wanted to touch her cheek, but he didn’t know how she might react.

  Willow wrinkled her nose like she had just encountered a bad smell. “Can we stay on subject?”

  “Sure,” Kaiden said. He dragged a chair over to sit next to her. “Why do we all have a number and a bunch of long triangles tattooed on us?”

  “Search me,” Willow said as she shifted so she could see the holograph screen. “I haven’t figured that out yet.”

  “All right,” Kaiden said, “so, where’s Quill’s body?”

  “Why?”

  “We just went through this. I need to say goodbye.”

  Willow took her time answering. When she faced him, her brow pinched together and a frown formed. “You’re too late,” she whispered.

  Kaiden waited for her to continue, but she just slouched without looking at him.

  “He was put into recomposition last night,” she said.

  Kaiden’s stomach somersaulted. “And the rest of my crew?”

  He had learned of recomposition in school as a child. Burials and cremation all used too much energy, contributed to pollution and global warming, and had been abandoned years ago. Too valuable to be wasted, all dead bodies were placed in special recomposition units, which used natural bacteria to decompose them into the soil. In a few weeks, there would be nothing left of Quill.

  “Why don’t they let us see our friends’ before composting them?” Kaiden said. “Why can’t we say goodbye?”

  Willow shook her head and laid a hand on Kaiden’s knee.

  “I’m sorry,” she said. “We’re just clones to them.”

  Kaiden bowed his head. TAP wasn’t playing around. In six months, he would be composted, and his remains would be used to grow plants in some isolated farm community, just like Quill, and nobody would know or care.

  Willow leaned in and hugged him. �
�I’m so sorry,” she said. Kaiden stiffened in surprise and then let her hold him. She smelled of vanilla, and her embrace was warm. He couldn’t remember a time when anyone had hugged him.

  Jade tapped quietly on Kaiden’s door as she tried to calm her ragged breathing. The hallway was empty, and the lights were dimmed for the night. She had raced from the Genesis Room, desperate to warn Kaiden that he was in more danger than he knew. Nothing stirred inside the room. She knocked louder. Silence.

  She leaned with her back to the wall to catch her breath and then clicked on the WT and set it to contact only Kaiden before raising it close to her mouth.

  “Kaiden,” she whispered. “Wake up.”

  Something shuffled down the hallway, and she stiffened. Easing her rifle around to the front, she prepared to fight. Had they followed her? Had she not avoided the cameras in her haste to reach Kaiden?

  The shuffling paused and then came on.

  “I’ve been awake,” Kaiden’s voice came over her WT, making her jump. “You women won’t leave me alone.”

  Now, his voice came from both the WT and the direction of the shuffled footsteps. Jade straightened as Kaiden came around the bend and into the glow of the dimmed lights. She lowered her rifle as relief flooded into her chest. He was alive.

  “Do you usually wander around the base in your pajamas?” she asked.

  “Only when women call me from bed,” he said.

  “What woman?” Jade asked, suddenly suspicious. She had just shot a woman. He couldn’t mean the same one. Could he?

  “Willow found something about Quill, so I went to find out what it was.” He paused by the door and swiped his ID in front of the Access Control, and it swished open. He glanced at her and waved her in.

  Jade experienced a sudden and unexpected pang of jealousy. What was wrong with her? She was a soldier, not some lovesick school girl.

  “Do you usually wander around the base dressed in full battle gear?” Kaiden asked.

  She stepped inside and brushed the hair from her face. “Sometimes,” she said.

  “Did you turn on the DWJ before you came?” Kaiden said. “I don’t want any accusations floating around.”

  Jade nodded. What would he say when she told him what she had done? “I just shot two people,” she blurted.

  Kaiden froze and turned slowly to face her.

  “Why?” he said.

  “They were spying on you. They said you knew about The Flood and that you needed to be neutralized.”

  Kaiden dropped into a chair by the table and ran his hands over his head.

  “Where was this?” he said.

  Jade shuffled her feet and studied her boots. She didn’t want to tell him, but how could she avoid it? “The Genesis Room,” she mumbled.

  She glanced up in time to see the scowl on Kaiden’s face.

  “What were you doing up there this time of night?”

  Jade shook her head. “It doesn’t matter. I left their bodies on the floor and came to tell you.”

  Kaiden rose and checked his WT. “They’ll be found at the next change in staff in one hour.”

  He stripped off his shirt and pajama bottoms without any warning and reached for the uniform he had draped over a chair. Muscles rippled under his dark skin, and Jade felt the heat rising in her cheeks. Did he have any idea how attractive he was?

  “You could have warned me,” she said as she turned away.

  “Sorry,” Kaiden said, “but we’ve got to move. Fast.”

  Jade glanced over her shoulder to see him buckle his belt and slide on his boots. He touched his WT as he bent to tie them. “Flint,” he said, “I need you.” There was no answer.

  “Get up, you old mophead,” he said louder.

  “What’s got your knickers in a twist?” Flint’s voice came over the WT, sounding sleepy and annoyed.

  “We’ve got a situation, and you’re the only one who can handle it.”

  “Of course. Do you have any idea what time it is?”

  “Meet me by the nursery in five minutes and bring your most sophisticated computer.”

  Kaiden snatched up his rifle and grabbed Jade’s arm. “Let’s go.”

  Chapter Twelve

  Colleagues in Crime

  Jade led the way through the darkened, silent corridors. Once or twice, they had to pause to avoid a security patrol. Kaiden had Quill’s DWJ switched on so he couldn’t be tracked, but they had to be careful of the cameras. Jade seemed to know how to avoid them, so he let her choose the path. Conflicting emotions boiled in his chest. How could anyone know that he knew about The Flood? Was it Quill’s deleted message? And if they were ready to kill him for it, why was he still alive? If those bodies were found before he could hide them, his career and his attempt to discover why Quill had been murdered would be over.

  He glanced at Jade. She was another mystery. She crept along silently, carefully, checking her back trail, and monitoring the location of the cameras. Jade was good at this. Why had she been so willing to kill to protect him when they barely knew each other? When they arrived at the blue nursery door, they found Flint crouching in the shadows, waiting for them. He spun as they approached.

  “What’s this all about?” he snapped. His thick, black hair was a mess, and he’d missed a button on his shirt.

  “Relax, cowboy,” Kaiden said. He gestured to the door to the Genesis Room. “Can you do something about all the cameras in there?”

  Flint narrowed his eyes. “Why?” he said.

  “We have a mess to clean up before it’s too late.”

  Flint glanced and Jade. “I have a feeling I don’t want to know what it is.” He pulled out his computer and switched it on. Leaning his back against the wall, he slid to the floor, cradling the computer on his knees. The blue light from the screen lit his face, which tightened in concentration. Kaiden had to force himself to not fidget while he waited.

  “There,” Flint said and rose to his feet. “I’ve got them all diverted, but you can’t leave it for long, or someone will notice.”

  “Right,” Kaiden said and strode to the door. He peered through a tiny observation window. The sight of the motherless wombs with the babies wriggling inside made his stomach clench tight. It was so inhumane, so crass and calculating. He still hadn’t reconciled himself to the fact that he began his life in a room like this. How could human beings be reduced to mere experiments in a petri dish?

  Flint joined him. “Kind of makes you feel sick, doesn’t it?”

  Jade elbowed past them and keyed in the access code. “This way,” she said and pushed through the door.

  They ghosted from shadow to shadow along the long line of whirring machines under the red lights from the blinking machines until they reached the first body on the floor. It was a young man Kaiden recognized but couldn’t place his name. A pool of blood had spread under him. Another puddle lay beside him, but it had been disturbed. A trail of blood led off into the rows of motherless wombs with their eerie green lights.

  Flint swore. “I can’t believe you got me involved in this.”

  “There was a lady,” Jade said. “I was sure she was going to die.”

  “INCR can work quickly, especially if you missed the heart,” Kaiden said. “Any ideas where we can dispose of the body?” He didn’t like the subterfuge or the fact that another clone had to die, but Jade had done what she thought best. He picked people for his team who could think on their feet. He wasn’t going to second guess her now.

  “There’s a new section under construction at the back of the hall,” Jade said.

  “Flint, help me lift him. Jade, see if you can find something to clean this up.”

  Kaiden bent and grabbed under the young man’s arms while Flint hefted the legs. Together, they carried the body through several rows of chambers to a dark area where some new
dialysis machines were being built. They clambered up onto one and wedged the body inside so it couldn’t be seen from the floor. Kaiden found an old rag one of the workers must have left behind and used it to clean up the blood trail they had left behind. By the time they returned to where Jade was mopping up the blood, she was almost finished. She swiped the mop over the last bit of blood and plopped it back into the mop bucket. Then she nodded to him and hurried away to dispose of the evidence.

  “Care to tell me why I just committed several crimes?” Flint asked while they waited for her to return.

  “Later,” Kaiden said. He checked his watch. “We’ve only got five minutes before the shift changes.”

  The sound of footsteps echoed in the immense hall. Kaiden swung around to find a security patrol advancing toward them.

  “Down,” he whispered, and he and Flint crept into the shadow of a dialysis unit. Jade’s figure reentered the hall from the cleaning room. Kaiden clicked is WT to warn her, but it was too late. She closed the door with a soft click. The security guard paused and faced the sound.

  Jade froze in place. Where were Kaiden and Flint? The green lights of the motherless wombs lit the chamber. The sound of boots on tile echoed faintly. Then she saw him. A black-clad security guard was working his way through the rows of incubators coming toward her. Had he seen her, or was he simply following the sound of the closing door?

  “Get out of there,” Kaiden’s voice whispered over the WT.

  Jade snapped her rifle up and then lowered it. She wasn’t going to kill an innocent guard if she didn’t have to. She crouched and jogged to the nearest motherless womb before the guard came through the row. Throwing her back against a tank just as he stepped out and scanned the area, Jade peered through the translucent liquid with its tiny infant waving its hands. The guard’s image was distorted, but she could see his head shift from side to side. Just keep going, she thought.

  He checked the closet where she had washed the bloody water down the drain and rinsed out the mop and bucket. Finding nothing, he came out and strode toward her again.